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The Digitalis Project

>> “Digitalis |ˌdijiˈtalis| (noun): a drug prepared from the dried leaves of foxglove and containing substances (notably digoxin and digitoxin) that stimulate the heart muscle. It is used…ORIGIN late 18th cent.: from the modern Latin genus name of the foxglove, from digitalis (herba)‘(plant) relating to the finger,’ from digitus ‘finger, toe’; suggested by German Fingerhut ‘thimble or foxglove.’” [New Oxford American Dictionary]

Digitalis, drug obtained from the dried leaves of the common foxglove (Digitalis purpurea) and used in medicine to strengthen contractions of the heart muscle. Belonging to a group of drugs called cardiac glycosides, digitalis is most commonly used to restore adequate circulation in patients with congestive heart failure, particularly as caused by atherosclerosis or hypertension. The drug is also used to slow the rate of ventricular contraction in patients with atrial fibrillationor flutter. Digitalis directly increases the contractile power of the heart muscle, enabling a disease-weakened heart to keep up with the body’s demand for heart action. [Encyclopaedia Brittanica]

This is the digitalized product of my own digits, poisonous when handled improperly, saving lives by guiding heartbeats and challenging atrophied margins of emotion and imagination.

The Digitalis Project is a recent undertaking, wherein I, Nygel Metcalfe, will be attempting to cultivate depository, of sorts, of older and lesser appreciated works of mine, and making them available for your consumption. Poems from the Vault. A digital transcribing of my own poetry in the hope of agitating long-forgotten ghosts of emotion, stimulating neglected heart-muscles, breathing life into my own memories, and sharing my inner story, in all of its intimate guts and mediocre glory.
There are things to be found. I want to be found. Please find me.

Despite my reluctance to own it as a label and as a part of my identity, I find that “poet” best indicates what my passion is, and I am in the business of capturing moments and sharing them. So, contend with this weblog, the lost pieces and parcels of my swelling notebook of poems, desire always filling and growing, transcendental chalice overflowing, magna cum laude from the oldest of schools, dirty knees in the garden with the holiest of fools, well-worn timewarp, steamiest of action, mad for this concoction…Digitalis: Go ahead, friends, drink it down.